My dad's pride and joy

[Terri French]

My dad has always loved dogs. This is R.C., his hunting dog. I want to get a nice picture of R.C. for him. Here is an attempt I made yesterday. I'm deciding that black is a hard color to get just right. I want to know what you think about the picture. I shot it in raw and can reprocess if some of you have suggestions on things I can do better.

My second attempt after suggestions below.

View attachment 8517

 

[Gale]

Terri,

No wonder he love him so much. That is a best dog and Friend one can have and he is beautiful to me. I love labs.

The image looks great to me. Background is rather neon green tho.

Lets see what the experts say.

I love the shot. Good job.

Yes black is hard to shoot.

But I think you did a good job.

 

[Leigh]

Awwwwww, I'm not even a pet person (i know, how dare I even say the words), and that is about the sweetest puppy face I've seen!

 

[Flew]

What a sweetie. About the only nit that I have Terri is the same as Gale's. I'd back off of the color saturation just a tad.

Otherwise, it looks great.

 

[hillrg]

Hi Terri

A couple of minor suggestions:

o I would eliminate the brown background at the top of the photo and clone in the green, after desaturating it a little.

o I would also add a little canvas to the top of the photo, cloning in green there as well.

I like the detail, expression, colour and tone on the dog.

 

[PhotoDawg]

AWE!! Good lookin' DAWG there!! Nice shot Terri!!

 

[strobel]

I think just adjusting the greens saturation and lighten. I hope you don't mind, I think it makes a big difference.

Ron

 

[TOLady]

I like the colouring of the second, but a touch darker, makes his fur richer as in the first shot. A really great portrait of a really good looking pooch!

 

[Terri French]

I think you all have such good suggestions. I have been working with the picture to try and fix it.

Ron, I am using photoshop. How do I select just the greens. I agree that the result is much better.

Thanks all for your help.

[/quote]

 

[strobel]

I like the colouring of the second, but a touch darker, makes his fur richer as in the first shot. A really great portrait of a really good looking pooch!

I was in a rush, I have now applied a mask to the Lab so now the adjustments are to the background only.

Ron

 

[strobel]

I think you all have such good suggestions. I have been working with the picture to try and fix it.

Ron, I am using photoshop. How do I select just the greens. I agree that the result is much better.

Thanks all for your help.

[/quote]

Go to the layers palate and create a adjustment layer (the little circle with half dark and half white). When you click on the circle and hold it a menu pops up, you should choose hue/saturation. With the layer selected just go to the photo (your cursor will turn into a eye dropper) then select on of the darker tones of green. Now make your reduction in saturation and increase in lighten. You will only be working with the green tones with the saturation. To keep from applying the lightness to the dog select the mask (right box on adjustment layer) and paint the dog black. Don't worry your only making a mask so the adjustments will not be applied to the dog. If you don't want the green to be lighter then just ignore the lightness. You could just change the tint of green to something a little more eye pleasing.

Addition - When you start your adjustment layer use the top pulldown menu to select greens, then use your eye dropper to select the correct color you want to work on. Infact you will see yellow is in need of adjusting. If you do not do this you will not be able to select the color with the eye dropper.

I hope this helps.

Ron Strobel

 

[Terri French]

Thank you Ron

Ron,
Your instructions were so easy to understand. Thank you. I guess I have never used a hue/saturation adjustment level before. I'll have to play around with it some more!!!

Thank you very much

 

[Greg]

Great shot. I bet he would appreciate any of the versions posted. the only thing that's going to make that dog any happier is being out in the field with his buddy.

 

[Flew]

Terri,

Good job on the second version. Isn't it neat to come to the Cafe and get new ideas from all of the nice folks here?? :wink:

 

[Terri French]

I am so impressed

Terri,

Good job on the second version. Isn't it neat to come to the Cafe and get new ideas from all of the nice folks here?? :wink:

With the type of people here. The forum experience is a very important part of this hobby for me. I live in a small town where I don't have any friends who share this hobby. (I do have friends, though :wink:.) If I continue to get help like this, I might actually become a good photographer someday!!!! Then I will be able to return the favor and help someone else.

 

[Terri French]

Thank you Rory for your ideas

Hi Terri

A couple of minor suggestions:

o I would eliminate the brown background at the top of the photo and clone in the green, after desaturating it a little.

o I would also add a little canvas to the top of the photo, cloning in green there as well.

I like the detail, expression, colour and tone on the dog.

Rory,
I didn't dismiss your suggestions. I tried adding the canvas and cloning in the green background. I'm just not very good at cloning yet and I felt that my efforts looked fake. I will do some research on cloning methods and give it a try again. I do think the picture would look better with the brown cloned out.

 

[Retief]

Terri, I'll add just one more. I would try to increase the catchlight in the dogs eyes a bit. You can do this in PS by selecting just that area and lightening, or if you have a copy of Paint Shop Pro, and this is why I keep it around, the Red Eye Removal tool also enables you to add some catchlight, and is very easy to use. Other than that, and of course that it is not a Mini-Schnauzer :wink: , looks really good.

 

[Terri French]

Terri, I'll add just one more. I would try to increase the catchlight in the dogs eyes a bit. You can do this in PS by selecting just that area and lightening

Would you lighten by adjusting the brightness in that area? Would I need to add saturation as well?

Don't worry--the mini-schnauzer is mine. There will be lots of pictures of her. Right now she is due for a grooming so we'll wait until she looks gorgeous.

 

[Terri French]

Terri, I'll add just one more. I would try to increase the catchlight in the dogs eyes a bit. You can do this in PS by selecting just that area and lightening

Would you lighten by adjusting the brightness in that area? Would I need to add saturation as well?

Don't worry--the mini-schnauzer is mine. There will be lots of pictures of her. Right now she is due for a grooming so we'll wait until she looks gorgeous.

 

[Retief]

Terri, I'll add just one more. I would try to increase the catchlight in the dogs eyes a bit. You can do this in PS by selecting just that area and lightening

Would you lighten by adjusting the brightness in that area? Would I need to add saturation as well?

Don't worry--the mini-schnauzer is mine. There will be lots of pictures of her. Right now she is due for a grooming so we'll wait until she looks gorgeous.

That is what I would try first. I use Paint-Shop-Pro for that, but in PS that is where I would begin. You might have to do some blends around the edges as well.

Mini's are cool. It is amazing to see what around 100 Schnauzers look, and sound like, in one place :lol: